ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Department of Philosophy
St. John Hall, Room B30-14
Queens Campus
St. John’s University
8000 Utopia Parkway
Queens, NY 11439
Phone: (718) 990-5682
Fax: (718) 990-1907
yatesm@stjohns.edu
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
- Ph.D., Philosophy, Northwestern University, 2007
- B.A., with honors, Philosophy, Grinnell College, 2001
AREAS OF INTEREST
- Ethics, including bioethics
- Social and political philosophy
- Critical theory
- Feminist philosophy
PROFILE
Melissa Yates has been a member of the Philosophy Department since
2007. Dr. Yates specializes in moral and political
philosophy, with a particular research interest in theories of
deliberative democracy following John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas.
Her research considers the epistemic, normative, and legal
implications of conflicting ethical, cultural, and religious
worldviews in democratic theory. She is currently writing a book
titled, Evaluative Pluralism: Epistemic Promises of Public
Deliberation. The central questions of this book include:
“What are the limits of a person’s ability to comprehend, from the
outside, claims embedded in cultural and religious worldviews?” and
“What normative constraints should we adopt in our public
deliberation with others?” This project is an outgrowth of her
dissertation, “Religion in the Public Sphere: Reflection on Rawls
and Habermas.” Dr. Yates teaches courses in Ethics, Political
Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, and Bioethics. She has also taught
courses in Contemporary Legal Theory, History of Early Modern
Philosophy, and Philosophy of Religion.